February 2

As luck would have it, the thaw of several days ago melted all the snow in the backyard, clearing the grass between the door to the cellar and down the hill to the barn. In most winters, this stretch can hold 12 to 16 inches of snow easily until April, as it is partially hidden from the warming rays of any sunshine by the large evergreens that line the access road down to the lower woods.

Normally about now we run low on wood that I stacked in the cellar in two high rows (nearly a face cord). Cellar wood is warm wood, making it conservative of the heat when brought upstairs to the fireplace room. (Anyone who burns wood in a stove for heat soon learns that wood just brought in from the cold outside takes all the heat of combustion merely to warm the wood). In most years, this means trudging through the snow with a wood carrier, opening the barn door, navigating the incline into the dry barn, and ferrying one load after another up the hill and into the cellar. Today, however, was a small treat, as the ground was snow free and frozen hard from morning temperatures in the teens. This made for easy trips with the wheelbarrow, taking half the time and certainly half the effort. We have a full load in the cellar again.

PS: I discovered where our little feisty red squirrel lives. It was startled when I first entered the barn, nearly falling on my head from its nest in the eaves above as it scurried helter skelter to escape.

As luck would have it, the thaw of several days ago melted all the snow in the backyard, clearing the grass between the door to the cellar and down the hill to the barn. In most winters, this stretch can hold 12 to 16 inches of snow easily until April, as it is partially hidden from the warming rays of any sunshine by the large evergreens that line the access road down to the lower woods.

Normally about now we run low on wood that I stacked in the cellar in two high rows (nearly a face cord). Cellar wood is warm wood, making it conservative of the heat when brought upstairs to the fireplace room. (Anyone who burns wood in a stove for heat soon learns that wood just brought in from the cold outside takes all the heat of combustion merely to warm the wood). In most years, this means trudging through the snow with a wood carrier, opening the barn door, navigating the incline into the dry barn, and ferrying one load after another up the hill and into the cellar. Today, however, was a small treat, as the ground was snow free and frozen hard from morning temperatures in the teens. This made for easy trips with the wheelbarrow, taking half the time and certainly half the effort. We have a full load in the cellar again.

PS: I discovered where our little feisty red squirrel lives. It was startled when I first entered the barn, nearly falling on my head from its nest in the eaves above as it scurried helter skelter to escape.